Zag To The Zig #29 :: Personal tokens, a quiet earth & forget about rationality
A good day to all of you. This week I seem to have selected a broader selection of Curiosity Candy again. And I even invented a new room. Hope you’re well.
In the Economy Room
Freelancers are having a hard time. Lots of project based worked stopped, budgets are cut. So if you're a freelancer, a one-man band, do read this. The “It’s Just Me manifesto” are 23 mantras/guidelines/tips on how to be a better freelancer. See how many you agree with.
(Photo by Hannah Wei on Unsplash)💸 If you’re slightly more crypto-centric, do like Alex Masmej. He sold $20.000 worth of personal ALEX-coins in return for 15% of his income for the next 3 years. Lots of questions around tax and token minting. Roll, the platform he used, keeps 10% of all coins created. But nevertheless, I find it very interesting how these personal-ICO experiments evolve. If you’re into that sort of thing, old ZTTZ-subscribers may remember I did create my own GRR-coin. You can still claim 666 of these beauties - for free - here.
On a larger economic scale, one post-Corona scenario touted by the experts is that production of goods will be brought closer to home. Japan is already preparing to support their companies to move out of China. 🏃♂️
Last week I took part in a webinar about Sustainable Growth. I made my point about why I think the Business of the Future will need to get better at Alignment Thinking. 6 other people made short statements as well. If you missed it, it's available - for free.
In the Salon
I noticed I didn’t have a room for stuff about humans. What a mistake! Let’s call it the salon, where people gather. In that room this week, a nice podcast to bookmark. An hour with the man that popularised the idea that people’s rationality is overrated: Put your Intuition on Ice with Daniel Kahneman. 🧠🧠
Also, in the salon, I enjoyed reading these 2 stories from a Chinese writer on the experience of living in Wuhan over the last few months. Notice the shift in attitude towards the government between the post from early March and this week’s.
Trump’s early attempts to wave away the threat of the virus looked dangerously short-sighted to people here; his bid for an America-only vaccine grotesque. As racist attacks against Chinese-Americans have surged in the US, along with the virus, it has become impossible to argue for a Western model of freedom and democracy.
In the Ethics corridor
Last week, I talked about the anti-censorship library built in MineCraft. This week I discovered SmokeSignal, an app to chisel your message into a block of the Ethereum blockchain. Less PR, but admittedly, way uglier. 😖😖
One to follow in the discussion about if, whether and how we should use tracking apps to fight Corona (a discussion that will be omni-present, methinks): Google and Apple partner up on interoperability.
Actually, skip the official announcement and read the explainer by indoor-location specialists here. Useful for techies, as well as heathens 😉 - they use pop songs to explain how the privacy element works.
In the Tech Basement
Nice in-depth piece by one of my fave analysts, Ben Evans on post-Corona tech adoption.
Reason to read 1: some intriguing stats on how a country like France has huuuuge increases in adopting digital tools to work and shop.
Reason number 2: he does ask that very good question on how good the digital tools really are and how they are *just* digital translations of real-world behaviour. Do we really need a meeting/video call for that or is it just skeuomorphism.So Amazon is making their Just Walk Out technology (for real life stores) available to other retailers. Is this just about the data? This line in their FAQ did trigger my attention.
What data does Just Walk Out technology collect from my shoppers?
We only collect the data needed to provide shoppers with an accurate receipt.That means a lot then.
2 Random ZTTZ’s this week
⌨️ If you’re starting to miss the office, do indulge in this album (for real!) of 1960s office sounds. Oh, the typing on that!
🌎 A Belgian seismologist (is that a word?) discovered that the whole earth is actually moving less and making less seismic noise in these Corona-times. Why? Because of the decrease in human activity has lowered the vibrations.
🏁 End note: 1 thing I’ll be doing this week
I’m reading up on some blockchain stuff this week. I’ll be giving an online talk/workshop for a major consumer company soon and want to freshen up my story.